“If you could speak with any leader, living or dead, who would you choose? And what would you want to discuss with him or her?” That was a simple question asked of a group of high potential leaders during a leadership training session I attended this week.

Among the leaders mentioned were Gandhi, Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt. The names themselves were no surprise. The reasons given for wanting to speak with these individuals, however, read like a laundry list of skills and competencies that these high potential leaders are trying to develop.

Gandhi was cited as an exceptional example of someone who literally changed the political status of a country not through positional power, but rather through personal power – by relying on the communication of his vision and the lengths to which he would go to persuade others of the importance and moral foundation of that vision.

Lincoln was selected by three of the attendees, not because of his vision and powers of persuasion, but mainly for his ability as a team-builder in turning political rivals into cabinet members during his administration.

Eleanor Roosevelt was seen as someone who had a vision and created a job for herself. She propelled herself from the entertaining duties of previous first ladies into the global political arena, serving as a representative for her husband, FDR, and later, in the UN and in other formal and informal capacities, for Harry Truman.

Now the fact that Mahatma, Abe and Eleanor are no longer with us does preclude conducting an interview with them on these topics – or any others, for that matter. However, fortunately for us well-researched histories and biographies can help us gain insight into these leaders, their competencies and what made them tick. So for now, here is a list of books about these three leaders that you might find interesting.

• Gandhi: The Man, His People, and the Empire by Rajmohan Gandhi

• Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

• Eleanor and Harry : The Correspondence of Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman by Steve Neal

• No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin

 And the next time someone asks, “Have you read any interesting leadership books lately?”, your response may very well be, “Yes, I just finished reading a great history book or a very interesting biography.” Leadership insights are not the sole purview of modern-day leadership gurus.

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